India is drowning in fake news. And much of it is produced by its own political parties.

Dedicated so-called IT cells supported by highly paid consultants push disinformation on social media with the aim of converting voters to their point of view.

This isn’t limited to elections. Disinformation is warping Indian society itself. The past decade has seen an explosion of hate, a significant part of which has been powered by fake news.

The first line of defence against this tsunami? Fact checkers. To understand how they battle this scourge, Scroll's political editor, Shoaib Daniyal, speaks to Alt News co-founder Pratik Sinha on the first episode of Scroll Adda.

In a wide-ranging conversation, Sinha explains the toll disinformation has taken on India — and on his own mental health.

Producers: Kritika Pant, Raghav Kakkar

Have any thoughts, ideas or criticism? Email us at adda@scroll.in

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